From left to right: Abdul-Ghani Al-Asadi, commnader of the Iraqi anti-terror forces . Amar Al Hakeem, head of the Shiite national Alliance. Masoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region. Aziz Waysi, commander of the Kurdish Zeravani forces. Jamal Iminiki, Chief of General Staff of the Peshmerga forces. Photo: Rudaw video

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish President Masoud Barzani said Thursday that Mosul’s liberation is most important for the Kurds because it will end a security threat hanging over the Kurdistan Region.

“For us, the Mosul liberation means the removal of a threat on the Kurdistan Region. This is far more important than anything else,” Barzani told reporters on the Khazir Front, responding to a question about whether the Kurds feel they are being used by the United States in the war to evict ISIS from Mosul.

“America does not use us... we are fighting for ourselves. We thank America and all the countries that have supported us,” he said.

The president said it was hard to predict the time of the ground attack on ISIS in Mosul, with Kurdish forces nine kilometers east of Mosul on the 11th day of an international offensive. But he reiterated that the “Peshmerga will not enter Mosul city.”

“The forces that will take that responsibility are from the [Iraqi] army, and maybe specifically from the anti-terror forces,” he said.

On Wednesday, Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said that Mosul is of special importance to Erbil because what happens there has a direct impact on the Kurdistan Region.

He warned that if Mosul is not administered well after liberation it will become the birthplace of another terrorist group.

“We had al-Qaeda in Iraq yesterday, we have ISIS today and tomorrow we will have another group if Mosul is not going to have a good administrating system,” he warned.